Pandora Bumps Up Price On Its Ad-Free Streaming Service

iTunes Radio still has a long way to go before it catches up with Pandora’s number of subscribers, but in an effort to keep up with increasing royalty costs, Pandora announced this morning that it’s bumping up the monthly subscription price for Pandora One.

Starting in May new subscribers will have to pay $4.99 per month if they want their music stream ad free, which is still cheaper than competitors like Spotify and Rdio (both $9.99 per month).

Apple’s alternative, iTunes Radio is ad-free with $24.99 annual iTunes Match subscription, but Pandora is deciding to just drop the annual subscription option altogether.

Here’s a breakdown of the pricing changes:

Existing Pandora One monthly subscribers that remain active will notexperience a price increase at this time and will continue to pay $3.99 per month.

For new subscribers, the subscription price will change to $4.99 per month starting in May.

Existing annual subscribers that remain active will migrate to a discounted loyalty price of $3.99 per month at their next renewal period.